maternityleavecoach

You’re not alone if you’re thinking that being away from the office during your maternity leave will impact your job. Quite a few women are so closely tied with their work that they can’t imagine being out of the hustle and bustle while they are home with their newborns. Thinking that they’ll be able to juggle it all they sometimes commit to a lot more contact with work than they end up wanting.

That said, it’s a good idea to keep expectations low regarding how you’ll be checking in with the office. Don’t make commitments about calling in every day or answering emails because you just don’t know how life will be until after the baby arrives. Make sure that your level of communication doesn’t hook you into working on projects, working directly with clients or promising to deliver the results at the annual shareholder meeting.

I was doing a bit of interwebbing today and ran across the Child Care Aware website. They’ve got a helpful decision tool that walks you through questions to determine whether you should go back to work or stay home. It also helps you:

My hope is that for every pregnant woman out in the workplace there are caring, supportive managers and co-workers who are going to help make their transition to motherhood a beautiful one. I’m an optimist and I generally think that most people have the best intentions and don’t plan on alienating others. That said, I would recommend that expectant mothers keep in mind that sometimes other employees feel awkward that they are “with child” and some of the offensive behavior you experience may really be general weirdness and not true harassment.

I had a great chat earlier this week with a close friend who is having her first baby in two months. I love a good hormone fueled conversation so this one was great! In frustration and with guilt she proclaimed, “I’m just not cut out to be one of those trendy stay at home moms who wears yoga pants everywhere and runs marathons! I also don’t want to wear pink kitty cat sweatshirts and mom jeans! Am I wrong to want to go back to work after I’ve bonded with my baby and just be me?!?!”.